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In todays scenario the problem of witnesses turning hostile is quite evident. The
crucial part played by the witnesses in bringing offenders to justice is central to
any modern criminal justice system, since the successful conclusion of each stage
in criminal proceedings from the initial reporting of the crime to the trial itself
usually depends upon the cooperation of witnesses. Their role at the trial is
particularly important in adversarial system where the prosecution must prove its
case by leading evidence, often in the form of oral examination of witnesses,
which can then be challenged by the defence at a public hearing.1 By deposing in a
case, they assist the court in discovering the truth. But the witnesses turning
hostile is a common thing happening in the criminal justice system. The whole
case of the prosecution can fall only on a false statement of the witness. The result
is that more and more citizens are losing faith in the effectiveness of the system in
providing justice to the victims. As long as the witnesses continue to go hostile
and do not make truthful depositions in court, justice will always suffer and
peoples faith in efficacy and credibility of judicial process will continue to be
eroded and shattered.2
3 Bose Suprio, Hostile Witness: A Critical Analysis of Key Aspects Hitherto Ignored in Indian Law
www.Legalserviceindia.com/article/host.htm.
4 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hostile_witness
5 http://dictionary.law.com
6 Atri Ajit, Hostile Witness: Not sufficient to earn acquittal, 2008 Cri.L.J (Jour.) 191
opposition. Hostile witness is a witness who testifies for the opposing party or a
witness who offers adverse testimony to the calling party during direct
examination.
Thus, a hostile witness, is also called as adverse witness, who weakens the case
of the side he or she is supposed to be supporting i.e. instead of supporting the
prosecution who has presented him as a witness in the court of law, the witness
either with his evidence or statement became antagonistic to the attorney and thus
"ruin the case" of the party calling such witness. In such a case, moreover, it is the
attorney who asks the judge to declare the witness a hostile witness. Thus, it is the
court and no other than the court that has authority to declare a witness a hostile
witness. It has to be remembered here that the court cannot by itself declare a
witness a hostile witness but it can do so only on the request made by the
prosecution attorney. If a witness has been declared a hostile witness, by the court
of law, the attorney then has greater freedom in questioning the hostile witness. In
other words, if a witness has been declared as hostile witness the prosecution may
question the witness as if in cross-examination i.e. he or she may ask leading-
questions to the witness declared hostile and this is the basic difference between
the status of a witness declared hostile and the witness who has not been declared
hostile or who is a common or favorable witness.
The word hostile witness is not defined in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.
The draftsmen of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 were not unanimous with
regard to the meaning of the words adverse, unwilling, or hostile, and
therefore, in view of the conflict, refrained from using any of those words in the
Act. The matter is left entirely to the discretion of the court. A witness is
considered adverse when in the opinion of the judge; he bears a hostile animus to
the party calling him and not merely when his testimony contradicts his proof.7
In Sat Pal V. Delhi Administration8 the Honble Supreme Court tried to define
hostile witnesses and laid that to steer clear controversy over the meaning of
hostile witness, adverse witnesses, unfavorable witness which had given rise to
considerable difficulty and conflict of opinions, the authors of the Indian Evidence
Act, 1872 seem to have advisedly avoided the use of any of those terms so that in
7 Supra note 6
8 1976 Cri.L.J. 295: A.I.R. 1976 S.C. 294
India the grant of permission to cross-examine his own witness by party is not
conditional on the witness being declared adverse or hostile. The Supreme Court
in Gura Singh V. State of Rajasthan,9 defined hostile witness as one who is not
desirous of telling the truth at the instance of one party calling him.
In the Indian context, the principles dealing with the treatment of hostile
witnesses are encompassed in Section 154 of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872.10 A
hostile witness is one who from the manner in which he gives evidence shows that
he is not desirous of telling the truth to the court. Within which is included the
fact that he is willing to go back upon previous statements made by him.11 A
witness is not necessarily hostile if he is speaking the truth and his testimony goes
against the interest of the party calling him. A witnesss primary allegiance is to
the truth and not to the party calling him. Hence, unfavourable testimony does
not declare a witness hostile. Hostility is when a statement is made in favour of
the defence due to enmity with the prosecution.12 The inference of the hostility is
to be drawn from the answer given by the witness and to some extent from his
demeanour. So, a witness can be considered as hostile when he is antagonistic in
his attitude towards the party calling him or when he conceals his true
sentiments and does not come out with truth and deliberately makes statements
that are contrary to what he stated earlier or is expected to prove. When a
prosecution witness turns hostile by stating something that is destructive of the
prosecution case, the prosecution is entitled to request the Court that such witness
be treated as hostile.13
Though there are not enough provisions under domestic law dealing directly with
the issue but there are certain provisions under the Indian Evidence Act, 1872 and
the CRPC, 1973 that are helpful in explaining the concept to some extent.
Concept of Perjury
Perjury in general sense is considered as lying. Perjury in legal sense means lying
or making verifiable false statements on a material matter under oath or
21 Pandey Sharan Brisketu, Hostile Witnesses in Our Criminal Justice System, 2005 Cr.L.J( Jour.) 17
22 Chaterjee Mamta, Problem of Hostile Witness, available at www.legalservicesindia.com
affirmation in a court of law or in any of various sworn statements in writing.
Perjury is a crime because the witness accused23 has sworn to tell the truth &,
for the credibility of the court, witness testimony must be relied on as being
truthful.24 Perjury is considered as a very serious crime as it could be used to
usurp the authority of the courts, resulting in miscarriage of justice. It has been
advocated by some of the jurists and judges that mere stringent and swift action
for perjury is one antidote to stop the hostile witnesses.
The perjury principles and norms are applied to witnesses who have admitted or
affirmed that they are telling the truth. A witness who is unable to swear to
tell the truth uses affirmative. For example, in the United Kingdom and till a
little while ago in India, a witness may swear on the Bible or holy book. If a
witness has no religion, or does not wish to swear on a holy book, the witness may
make an affirmation he or she is telling the truth instead. In some countries such as
France, suspects cannot be heard under oath and thus do not commit perjury,
whatever they say during their trial.25The matter of perjury laws recently gathered
considerable attention. The offence of perjury is not only applicable to criminal
cases, but also extends to other judicial proceeding including civil case being tried
by civil courts exercising original jurisdiction. While the problem of perjury in
criminal cases is generally confined to giving of false evidence on oath, it has a
wider spectrum as far as civil cases are concerned and includes giving false
evidence, fabricating false/forged documents to be used as evidence etc.
Statements of interpretation of fact are not perjury because people often make
inaccurate statements unwittingly and not deliberately. Individuals may have
honest but mistaken beliefs about certain facts or their recollection may be
inaccurate like most other crimes in the common law system, to commit the act,
and to have actually committed the act (the actus rues).
23 Perjury also relates to false statement made by the accused, as statements of an accused should be proved or
disproved on evidence. Mr. Bill Clinton, President of U.S.A was charged for perjury for lying in Monika Lewinsky
incidence. He survived an impeachment attempt by congress.
24 Bhat Sairam, Perjury: Under Estimated Reasons for Failure of the Justice Delivery System in India, Kare
Law Journal, August 2006 pp. 73-78
25 Ibid
Perjury: A Critical Appraisal of Indian Law
There are some specific provisions dealing with the offence of perjury. The
section 191 of IPC26 defines perjury as "giving false evidence" and by
interpretation it includes the statements retracted later as the person is presumed to
have given a "false statement" earlier or later, when the statement is retracted. But
hardly anyone, including the legal experts, could recall a single case in which a
person was prosecuted for making a false statement before the court.
Any statement tendered under oath on an affidavit also constitutes perjury. Under
section 191 of IPC, 2 7 an affidavit is evidence and a person swearing to a false
affidavit is guilty of perjury punishable under section 193 IPC that prescribes the
period of punishment as seven years imprisonment. Sec 195(1)(b) of the code of
criminal procedure provides that no court shall take cognizance inter- alia of the
offence of perjury under Section 193 to 195 except on the complaint in writing of
that court or the court to which that court is subordinate. Section 340 of Criminal
Procedure Code prescribes the procedure to be followed for making a complaint
contemplated by Section 195. Section 344, Criminal Procedure Code however
prescribes an alternative summary procedure. It provides that if the Court of
Sessions or Magistrate of first class if any time of delivery of judgment in the case
expresses an opinion that the witness appearing in such proceeding had knowingly
or willfully given false evidence or fabricated false evidence for use in the
proceedings, the court may if satisfied that it is necessary and expedient in the
interest of justice that the witness should be tried summarily, take cognizance after
giving reasonable opportunity of showing cause, try such offence summarily and
sentence him to imprisonment which may extend up to three months or to fine up
to rupees five hundred or with both.
39 A.I.R. 1969 SC 7
40 A.I.R. 1969 SC 7
41 1983 Cri. L.J. 1527
9. The Case of Jeffrey Archer; Jeffery Archer, a well-known novelist
of Britain, was sentenced for four years imprisonment for
perjury. In 1987 he sued the Daily Star for libel when they
alleged that he had sex with an Irish prostitute, Monica
Coughlan. He won the case and was 500,000 damages,
but not everyone was convinced by the verdict. The
journalist, Adam Raphael wrote an article at the time which
carefully avoided libel but implied a number of things that
Archer probably had gone with a prostitute; that at the trail
Archer and his lawyers had shifted attention from this issue
to the tactics used by the Daily Star to trap Archer; and
that the Daily Star had only themselves to blame for this.
Before sentencing him the judge Mr. Justice Potts told Lord
Archer. "These charges represent as serious an offence of
perjury as I have had experience of and have been able to
find the books". The jury found him guilty of lying and
cheating in his 1987 libel case against the Daily Star. The
verdicts were unanimous on each count. Lord Archer, who
was ordered to pay 175,000 costs within 12 months, was
told by the judge he would have to serve at least half of his
sentence.42 This case has set a new trend in the
contemporary society about the sanctity of legal system in
Britain.
10. The Indian scenario, on the contrary presents a rather dismal picture.
Even the apex court of the country expressed its concern over this
matter time and again. In one of the cases, the Supreme Court held that
"unscrupulous litigants are found daily resorting to utter blatant falsehood
in the Courts". While "most of the witnessmakes false statements to
suit the interests of the parties calling them". The perjurer in the case
happens to be Advocate R. Karuppan, who is also president of the
Madras High Court Advocates Association. The perjury committed by
Karuppan is that he filed a petition questioning the authenticity of Justice
42 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1424501.stm.
A. S. Anand's date of birth in spite of knowing full well that the issue had
already been settled by the President of India. Ordering a complaint of
perjury to be filed against Karuppan before a magistrate, the Apex court
warned; "If the system is to survive, effective action is the need of the
time.43 Indeed, Karuppan's perjury may not be exceptional but the
action initiated in his case that too suo motu, seems to be an exception to
the general practice among the courts to condone perjury. And it would
not be out of place to suggest that Karuppan also would have probably
got away with his perjury had the aggrieved party not been former Chief
Justice of India A S Anand himself.44
47 Sidhartha Vashisht @ Manu Sharma V. State (NCT Of Delhi) Bench: P. Sathasivam, Swatanter Kumar
48 57 (1995) DLT 154
"Which of your statements is correct", Saxena asked saying once he told that
accused signed at the memo in his presence and later gave an opposite
statement controverting his earlier utterances. My recent statement is correct,
Kalicharan said claiming that his earlier testimonies were recorded under police
pressure.
52 Zahira Sheikh, the main prosecution witness in the high profile Best Bakery case, has been sentenced to a year in
prison for lying in the court and with a fine of rupees 50,000. Zahira Sheikh changed his testimony many times. A
committee appointed by the Supreme Court said it believed she had been bribed for lying in the court.
53 R. Venkataraman, The whole truth about perjury, INDIAN EXPRESS, Saturday, February 25, 2006
involves "buying" of witness by influential accused can be handled only by strictly
enforcing the penal law on perjury
However, the action against making a false statement should be initiated
during the trial itself, & not at the end of it-which may take a long time. That may
be a deterrent against persons who intentionally mislead the court or make false
statements under oath or file tainted affidavits54 much against the public good.
Initiating action against a person for perjury after the trial is over is one of the
reasons why in India several perjury cases go totally unnoticed as a fresh trial
begins on perjury running into years.55
54 The Delhi High Court on April17th 2005 summoned the Deputy Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, Delhi, East
N.K. Sharma and three other officials to appear before it following a complaint that the officials have filed a false
affidavit regarding the ongoing demolition drive in the capitals Krishnanagar and Gandhinagar areas. http: // www.
Newkerala.com/
55 The Law Commission of India has examined aspects of this in 1958, 1966 and more recently in a
consultative paper in 2005.
56 A.I.R. 2000 S.C. 2017
57 2009 Criminal Court Cases 921 (P&H) (DB)
A witness intentionally giving false or fabricated evidence in the court, the very
court before which a hostile witness gave false evidence itself has power
under Section 344 Cr.P.C. to award punishment to the witness summarily after
giving reasonable opportunity of showing cause why he should not be so
punished. Provisions of section 344 should be used effectively and frequently to
stop the menace of perjury, which has bearing on alarming rise. Witnesses taking
U- turn at trial has become a menace to criminal judicial system.
In another case Mahila Vinod Kumari v. State of Madhya Pradesh,58 where
the petitioner had lodged FIR against two persons on the allegations of
having committing rape and it was only on the basis of the same that charge sheet
was filed against them and they were put to trial. During trial, the prosecutrix
resiled from her statement made during the investigation and even denied lodging
of the FIR or having had given any statement to the police.
The Hon'ble Supreme Court observed as under:
"The purpose of enacting Section 344 Cr.P.C. corresponding to Section 479A of
the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Old
Code') appears to be further arm the Court with a weapon to deal with more
flagrant cases' and not to take away the weapon already in its possession. The
object of the legislature underlying enactment of the provision is that the evil
of perjury and fabrication of evidence has to be eradicated and can be better
achieved now as it is open to the Courts to take recourse to Section 340(1)
(corresponding to Section 476 of the Old Code) in cases in which they are
failed to take action under Section 344 Cr.P.C."
"This Section introduces an additional alternative procedure to punish perjury
by the very Court before which it is committed in place of old Section 479 A
which did not have the desired effect to eradicate the evils of perjury."
"For exercising the powers under S.344 of the Code, the Court at the time of
delivery of judgment or final order must at the first instance express an opinion
to the effect that the witness before it has either intentionally given false
evidence or fabricated such evidence. The second condition is that the Court
must come to the conclusion that in the interests of justice the witness
58 2008(8) SCC 34
concerned should be punished summarily by it for the offence, which appears to
have been committed by the witness. And the third condition is that before
commencing the summary trial for punishment the witness must be given
reasonable opportunity of showing cause why he should not be so punished. All
these conditions are mandatory. The object of the provision is to deal with the
evil of perjury in a summary way."
The Hon'ble Supreme Court held that this provision should be used effectively
and frequently to stop the menace of perjury, which has bearing on alarming
rise. The apex Court held as under:
"The evil of perjury has assumed alarming propositions in cases depending
on oral evidence and in order to deal with the menace effectively it is
desirable for the courts to use the provision more effectively and frequently
than it is presently done."
59 Paliwal, Anand Witness Protection Program- Necessary to Ensure Justice, 2008 Cr.L.J. (Jour.) P. 113
the witnesses during and after the trial. The witness is afraid of facing the
wrath of the convicts who may be well connected. Witnesses are extremely
vulnerable to intimidation in the form of threats by the accused. The Peoples
Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) made a press release on July 2, 2003
pertaining to the Best Bakery case saying that there were two ways to explain why
witnesses turn hostile. The first is that the police had recorded the statements
incorrectly. The second and more plausible was that the police had recorded the
statements correctly but was retracted by the witnesses because of intimidation
and other methods of manipulation.60
A systematic research is needed to know as to why the witnesses turn
hostile. There are experiences that in the olden days it was pretty rare to see
prosecution witness going hostile. Its not that money and muscle power factors
were absent in those days. It seems it has something to do with the quality of
investigation. The SHO himself used to carefully conduct the entire process of
investigation and it was seldom left to the junior functionary. Secondly, the SHO
used to remain present during all the hearings and his presence was a definite
deterrent to the witness to twist his statements. Thakur.J61 (2001) is of the opinion
that earlier an eye- witness used to be summoned only once and he would
be examined on the same day. Hostile witness is also 'stock witness' or pocket
witness with police and they are planted to go hostile only.
Das J.(2002)62 quoted many reasons for the hostility of witness and resultant
effects on declining rates of conviction in India. His paper report following data;
According to a recent survey by the Directorate of Civil Rights Enforcement
(DCRE) the following are the main reasons for the low conviction rate:
1. Hostile witnesses 26 per cent
2. Hostile victims 27 per cent
3. Lack of abysmally low at 6.8 percent
The situation has reached such a stage that, in cases relating to lesser grave
offences, there are certain "stock witnesses" who give evidence in trials. The
problems in this instance are compounded by the fact that people are not willing to
60 Kejriwal Ankit, Need For a Witness Protection Programme: The Solution to the Problem of Hostile
Witness available at www.legalservicesindia.com
61 From the Lawyers Collective, August 2001
62 Witness Protection- Legal Crisis in India, Cri. L. J, 2002.
come forward or are discouraged to give evidence in cases while the police claim
that they have to make do with whoever is available.
th
65 178 , Law Commission Report, 2003, p. 142
66 Law Commission of India 154the Report on the 'Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973', Vol. 1 Chapter X, "Protection
and Facilities to witnesses", 1996 p. 43
67 S. C. Sarkar & Prabhas C. Sarkar, Law of Criminal Procedure, India Law House, New Delhi, (8th Ed., 2004), p.
1013.
68 However, Section 437(6) of the Code enables the accused to obtain bail if he is in detention, and his trial in the
Magistrate's Court is not completed within 60 days from the first date fixed for hearing; R V. Kelkar, Criminal Procedure, Dr.
K. N. Chandrasekharan Pillai (Ed.), Eastern Book Company, Lucknow, (4th ed., 2004), p. 391.
69 178th Law Commission Report,2003, p.142
Easy Availability of Bail to the Accused
In many cases involving high profile personalities or heinous crime, the courts
easily grant bail to the accused thereby making the witness vulnerable to threats
and intimidation by the accused. No doubt Section 439(2) of the Code of Criminal
Procedure provides for the arrest of a person who has been released on ball, it is
seldom used by the State in cases where there exists a reasonable apprehension
that the accused might try to influence the witness.
Defaults in Payments of Allowances
th
The Law Commission of India 154 Report70 observed that the allowances paid
to witness for appearing in Court are inadequate, and called for a prompt
payment, no matter whether they are examined or not. Section 312 of the Cr.P.C.
says subject to any rules made by the State Government, any Criminal Court may
if it thinks fit, order payment, on the part of Government, of the reasonable
expenses of any complainant or witness attending for the purpose of any
inquiry, trial or other proceeding before such Court under this Code.
However, in most cases proper diet money is not paid to the witnesses.
Lack of Adequate Facilities in Courts
Despite the crucial role of witnesses in criminal trials, the facilities provided to
them are minimal and insufficient. The 14th Law Commission Report71 highlighted
that in several States, the witnesses are made to wait under trees in Court
campuses, or in the verandahs of court houses. They are not protected from the
vagaries of the weather. Even the sheds in some courts are dilapidated and utilized
for other court purposes. Apart from suffering such indignities and inconvenience,
they have to spend time and money to come to courts from far distances.72
Use of Stock Witness
Stock witnesses refer to certain persons of doubtful credentials who are available
to serve the police as witnesses where real witnesses are not forthcoming.
Planting such pliable witnesses as prosecution witnesses quite invariably leads to
such witnesses turning hostile as they can be bought for a small price. The result is
th
70 Law Commission of India, The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(Act No. 2 of 1974), 154 Report, Fourteenth
Law Commission under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice K. J. Reddy 1995-1997, in 1996
71 Law Commission of India ,Reform of Judicial Administration,14th Report , First Law Commission under the
Chairmanship of Mr. M.C.Setalvad 1955-1958, in 1958
72 Supra note 67
failure of case ending in acquittal of all the accused, there being no evidence or
reliable evidence on record.
Use of Money Power by the Accused
In many cases the witnesses are bought off or purchased with the use of money.
In such cases the victims/witnesses are mostly poor who are badly in need of
money. The procedure is simple. The prime witnesses in a case are contacted
either directly by the party or through the lawyers litigating that case and then
offered a sum of money for not cooperating in the investigation and/or are told to
take a pre decided stand at the trial. If, however, the trial has already started then
he is told to turn away from what he had said earlier or to contradict his own
statement.
Threat / Intimidation
The Delhi High court observed73 that witnesses in a large number of cases were
turning hostile due to intimidation and threat. The Home Ministry in its affidavit
admitted that in all important cases witnesses were under constant threat
from criminals. The affidavit said, There is need to take steps to stop
harassment of witnesses so that he does not feel frustrated. There is also urgent
need to provide adequate protection to the witnesses from intimidation by
criminals.
Other Factors
Political pressure, self-generated fear of police and the legal system, absence of
fear of the law of perjury, an unsympathetic law enforcement machinery and
corruption are some of the other reasons for witnesses turning hostile in the course
of trial. Psychological studies carried on witnesses seem to suggest that grueling
cross- examination, frequent adjournments; courtroom intimidations are some of
the major reasons that force a witness to turn hostile. The successful working of
the criminal justice system depends critically on the willingness of individuals to
furnish information and tender evidence without being intimidated or bought. As
symbolized by Zahira Sheiks flip flops in the Best Bakery case, the threat of
retaliation, which could include physical violence, is a major reason why
witnesses (some of them victim) do not cooperate.
76 Law Commission of India, Recommendations for Amending Various Enactments, Both Civil and Criminal,
th
178 Report , Sixteenth Law Commission under the chairman ship of Mr. Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy 2000-2001& Mr.
Justice M. Jagannadha Rao 2002-2003 in 2001
77 th
Law Commission of India, The Code of Criminal Procedure, 1973(Act No. 2 of 1974), 154 Report, Fourteenth
Law Commission under the Chairmanship of Mr. Justice K.J.Reddy 1995-1997, in 1996
The Malimath Committee appointed by the Government of India in 2001 to
suggest reforms to the criminal justice system in its report submitted in March,
2003, supported the views of the law commissions.78
Stringent Implementation of Section 311 of the Cr.P.C.
The first part of Section 311 of Cr.P.C. gives the Court the discretionary power
to:
1. Summon any one as a witness;
2. Examine any person present in the Court.
3. Recall and re-examine any witness.
The second part of the section makes it mandatory on the court to take any of the
above steps if the new evidence appears to be essential to the just decision of the
case. The paramount consideration of this section is doing justice to the case and
not filling up the gaps in the prosecution of defence evidence. In fact, both the
prosecution and the defence may cross-examine a witness called under Section
311, and the court may decide which party will ask questions first, and to what
extent. But these tools for ascertaining the truth is rarely used by the proactive trial
Magistrate or a Session Judge. Hence, the reality is that Section 311 remains a
dead letter.
78 Bhat, K. N., The Murder of Jessica Lall: Too many questions, but no answers, The Tribune, Dated 25 February
2006
Section 309 of the Cr.P.C. was enacted with the objective of ensuring speedy and
expeditious disposal cases and thus to prevent harassment of witnesses.79
However, the spirit of this beneficial provision has been totally missed by the
judiciary and courts grant frequent adjournments. Prolonged trial and
harassment is one of the main reasons for witnesses falling in side of the defence
and retracting their statements. Trial should proceed with as little delay as possible
so that there is less chance of the witness being approached and of
him/her forgetting the facts. The Public Prosecutor must anticipate that the
witness will turn hostile and have with him enough material and have prepared
questions to effectively cross-examine such a witness. In Swaran Singhs case,80
the Supreme Court observed:
Each trial should be properly monitored. Time has come that all the
Courts, District Courts subordinate courts are linked to the high Court with a
computer and a proper check is made on the adjournments and recording of
evidence. The Bar Council of India and State Bar Councils must play their part
and lend their support to put the criminal system back on its trial.
Evidence Recorded U/Section 164(5), Cr.P.C should be given
Substantive Value
The provisions in Section 164(5), Cr.P.C. although provide for recording the
statements of any person including the witnesses by a Magistrate, the statement so
recorded does not have a substantive value.81 In order to overcome the problem of
witness becoming hostile, it should be made mandatory that statement of all
material witnesses should be made to be recorded by a Judicial Magistrate
immediately during the course of investigation and the statements so recorded
have to be given substantive value.
Even if the witnesses turn hostile and retract from their statements made on oath
before a Judicial Magistrate the said statements on oath should be permitted to
be used as substantive evidence against the accused. However the probative
79 Section 309 (2) Second Proviso of the Cr.P.C states: Provided further that when witnesses are in
attendance, no adjournment or postponement shall be granted, without examining them. Except for special reasons to be
recorded
80 2000 Cr. L. J. 2780 (S.C.)
81 Ram Kishan V. Harmit Kaur A.I.R. 1972 S.C. 468
value of the statements should be left to the discretion of the court for evaluation
in the light of cross-examination and other materials adduced.
Reforming the process of investigation
The 14th Law Commission Report82 suggested that the investigation staff should
be separated from the law and order police. This will pave the way for a stricter
monitoring and control by the Examining Magistrate, and speedy investigations,
since the investigating police may be relieved of their law and their duties.
Furthermore, police officers need to be specially trained for the job of criminal
investigation. Prosecuting officers should be of help to the prosecutor, during the
trial, cases involving grave offences should be put to trial without any unnecessary
postponements, and in no case, before completion of six months from the date of
commission of the offence.
Enactment of a Comprehensive Witness Protection Legislation
Any further delay in the enactment of witness protection legislation shall cause
more miscarriages of justice in criminal trials. Article 142(2) of the Constitution of
India empowers, the Supreme Court shall as respects the territory of India, have
all and every power to make any order for the purpose of securing the attendance
of any person, the discovery or production of any documents or the investigation
or punishment of any contempt of itself.
In National Human Rights Commission V. State of Gujarat,83 the Supreme
Court observed:
no law has yet been enacted, not even a scheme has been framed by
the Union of India or by the State government for giving protection to the
witness.
It is high time that India should introduce a witness protection programme. The
Law Commission of India Consultation Paper on Witness Identity Protection and
Witness Protection Programme laid down that there are two broad aspects to the
need for witness protection. Firstly, to ensure that the evidence of witnesses
collected during investigation is not allowed to be destroyed by witnesses
retracting from their statements, during trial, and secondly, the physical and
82 Supra note 74
83 2003 (9) SCALE 329
mental susceptibility of the witness and taking care of his or her welfare, i.e. the
physical protection of the witness. The legislation should also necessarily include
provisions for treating the witness with dignity and fairness. The protection
programs cannot afford to cease after the completion of the trial, but should
continue thereafter too.
EVIDENTARY VALUE OF STATEMENT GIVEN BY A
HOSTILE WITNESS
The law is now well settled that merely because the witness is declared as hostile
witness, whole of his evidence is not liable to be thrown away.84 Reference in this
context may be made to the decision of the Supreme Court in State of U.P. V.
Ramesh Prasad Mishra and anr.85 Wherein Supreme Court stated that:
it is equally settled law that the evidence of a hostile witness would not
be totally rejected if spoken in favour of the prosecution or the accused, but it
can subjected to close scrutiny and that portion of the evidence which is
consistent with the case of the prosecution or defence may be accepted.
Considering the question relating to evidence of hostile witness, the Supreme
Court in Satpal v. Delhi Administration86 observed:
even in a criminal prosecution when a witness is cross- examined and
contradicted with the leave of the court, by the party calling him, his evidence
cannot, as a matter of law, be treated as washed off the record altogether. It is
for the judge of fact to consider in each case whether as a result of such cross-
examination and contradiction, the witness stands thoroughly discredited or can
still be believed in regard to a part of his testimony. If the judge finds that in the
process, the credit of the witness has not been completely shaken, he may, after
reading and considering the evidence of the witness, as a whole, with due
caution and care, accept in the light of the other evidence on the record, that
part of the testimony which he finds to be creditworthy and act upon it. If in a
given case, the whole of the testimony of the witness is impugned and in the
process, the witness stands squarely and totally discredited the judge should, as a
matter of prudence discard his evidence in toto.87
84 Syed Akbar V. State of Karnataka 1980 (1) S.C.C. 30, Rabindra Kumar Dey V. State Of 1976(4)S.C.C. 233 and
Bhagwan Singh V. State of 1976 (1) S.C.C. 389
85 (1996) 10 S.C.C. 360
86 A.I.R. 1976 S.C. 294
87 Pandappa Hanumappa Hanaman V. State of Karnataka, A.I.R. 1997 S.C. 3663 at 3667; Syed Akbar V. State of
Karnataka A.I.R. 1979 S.C. 1848; K. Anbazhagan V. Superintendent of Police A.I.R. 2004 S.C. 524
Witness even if declared hostile that by itself cannot wash out his evidence.88
That the fact that the witness was declared hostile did not
completely efface his evidence, it remained admissible in the trial. Since his
testimony was corroborated by other evidence, there was no legal bar to base his
conviction upon it.89
Referring to its earlier decision90 the Apex Court in Balu Sonba
Shinde v. State of Maharashtra91 held that while it is true
that declaration of a witness to be hostile does not ipso facto
reject the evidence and it is now well settled that the portion of
evidence being advantageous to the parties may be taken
advantage of but the court before whom such a reliance is
placed shall have to be extremely cautious and circumspect in
such acceptance. The Supreme Court has manifestly made it
clear that evidence of a witness cannot be discarded merely
because he is declared hostile.92 Part of a hostile witnesss
evidence, which is cogent and credible, can be acted upon;93
such evidence does not get wiped out in toto,94 or gets
automatically rejected.95 However, the fact that a witness has
resiled from the earlier statement made in the course of
investigation puts the court on guard and cautions the court
against acceptance of such evidence without satisfactory
corroboration.96 And such a testimony should be scrutinized closely and
accepted to the extent consistent with the case of the prosecution or defence97. In
88 Mallappa Siddappa Alakanur & Ors. V. State of Karnataka 2009 (3) Criminal Court Cases 376 (S.C)
89 Bhagwan Singh V. State of Haryana 1976 (1) S.C.C. 389
90 State of U.P. V. Ramesh Prasad Misra (1996) 10 S.C.C. 360
91 (2002) 7 S.C.C. 543
92 Ram Swaroop V. State of Rajasthan A.I.R. 2004 S.C. 2943
93 Gubbala Venugopalaswamy V. State of A.P. (2004) 10 S.C.C. 120, Aman Kumar V. State of Haryana
(2004) 4 S.C.C. 379
94 Leela Srinivasa Rao V. State of A.P. A.I.R 2004 S.C. 1720
95 R. Prakash V. State of Karnataka A.I.R. 2004 S.C. 1812
96 Ram Swaroop V. State of Rajasthan A.I.R. 2004 S.C. 2943.
The legislature has taken a significant step to prevent the evil of witnesses turning
hostile, by enacting Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 2005. There has been
inserted section 195-A in the Indian Penal Code. It provides:
whoever threatens another with any injury to his person, reputation or
property or to the person or reputation of any one in whom that person is
interested, with intent to cause that person to give false evidence shall be
punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may
extended to seven years, or with fine, or with both; and if innocent person is
convicted and sentenced in consequence of such false evidence with death or
imprisonment for more than seven years , the person who threatens shall be
punished with the same punishment and sentence in the same manner and to the
same extent such innocent person is punished and sentenced.
The new provision provides for deterrent punishment for threatening any person to
give false evidence. Similarly, in the Indian Evidence Act, 1872, by the same
Amendment Act, Sub-section (2) has been inserted in section 154 which states:
Nothing in this section shall disentitle the person so permitted under
sub-section (1) to rely on any part of the evidence of such witness.
The time has come that the malaise of hostile witnesses is to be taken
seriously and redressed immediately. The only solution to the problem of hostile
witness is to bring the proposed changes in the existing laws (as discussed above)
and to enact a special legislation to protect the rights of witnesses so that they may
depose freely and without intimidation. Punitive and deterrent actions are required
to weed out the menace of hostility of the witnesses which has become common
these days as there is no fear of punishment. Appropriate measures must be taken
for the protection of witnesses who appear before the courts to testify so as to
render a helping hand in dispensation of justice. Dearth of funds should never be
an excuse, if our society fails to be alive to the reality, the plight of an honest
witness will be catastrophic and calamitous. The Indian Parliament should take a
note of the current scenario and implement a Witness Protection Program in the
country. Protection to the witness in all aspects, especially in sensitive cases
would, to a great extent, be effective in preventing them from turning hostile.
Legislative measures in this regard have become the inevitable need of the hour to
maintain and improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice delivery system.